Where there is a will there is a way

Saturday, April 27, 2019

How to make chilli jam



Ingredients:

600g cut up chilllies or capsicums (peppers), any kind. 
1 cup vinegar 
5 cups sugar (helps preserve as bugs don't like all the sugar)
1/2 pouch Hansells Jam Setting Mix (from supermarket (pectin for thickening, made from apples). Method:

Cut up and core 600g of chillies (if I have picked a bit more I just add a bit more vinegar and sugar and setting stuff proportionally) no worries. Wear gloves or will have painful fingers.

The heat of your jam will be from this choice here.   Mild - 4 med sized capsicum, 4-5 capsicum.  Med - mostly Thai chillies.  Moderate and divine - add a Habanero with inside white interior scraped away (tamed that is where heat us stored). etc!

Blend with 1 cup vinegar - add half chillies and all vinegar, blend, than add the other half.




Pour into large pot with 5 cups sugar in it. Stir. DON'T ADD PECTIN YET.



Boil 10 min, turn up to max then turn down to gentle boil. Put clean jars into oven at 160 degrees C to kill bugs. I wipe sides with wet scraper to avoid possible crystallisation with unmixed sugar falling in at wrong time. 


Then add pectin made into paste just before adding (or gets thick) stir well and count to 60. Take off heat.

At this point you pour into hot sterile bottles, to 1 cm from top. Pour slowly as hot bottles will fizz the stuff up. USE A GLASS MEASURING CUP or something small to pour into jar. I still have a scar where sticky jam danged onto my arm. You can't get sticky boiling stuff off in time.


Pour then cap using a tea towel or something, stick on windowsill or wherever. You will hear a POP which is the oxygen leaving the bottle as it vacuum seals. When it cools label with pride.



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